The Arkea-Samsic team have confirmed they have turned down a chance to ride the Giro d’Italia so they can focus on the 2022 Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, with the goal to secure a place in the 2023 WorldTour.
The French ProTeam obtained an automatic invitation to the three Grand Tours thanks to finishing second in the 2021 ProTeam rankings behind Alpecin-Fenix. However team manager Emmanuel Hubert and key riders Nairo Quintana, Connor Swift, Warren Barguil and Nacer Bouhanni are fighting to score as many ranking points as possible to secure one of the 18 WorldTour team places in 2023. They need to finish in the decisive top 18 teams in the three-year points ranking, above main rivals such as Cofidis, Lotto Soudal and Team DSM. Arkea-Samsic has started the season well, with Quintana recently winning the Tour de la Provence.
The 18 WorldTour teams automatically receive invitations to all the WorldTour races, with Alepcin-Fenix set to take-up their place in all three Grand Tours and other major WorldTour races that was secured via being top of the 2021 ProTeam ranking.
Arkea-Samsic’s decision means a third Italian team is likely to secure a wild card invitation to the Giro d’Italia, with Bardiani CSF Faizanè, Drone Hopper–Androni and Eolo–Kometa keen to line-up in Budapest on Friday May 6. However Gazprom-RusVelo and Uno-X could also bid for a place, especially after the Scandinavian team was overlooked for a Tour de France wild card.
“We deeply respect the Giro d'Italia, the RCS company, its history, but unfortunately this year we will not be competing in this Grand Tour, as our second place in the Pro-Series team ranking allows us to do so. We will only run two three-week events: the Tour de France (ASO) and the Vuelta a España (Unipublic) in which our main leaders and experienced riders will participate,” Arkea-Samsic team manager Emmanuel Hubert said.
“2022 is a crucial season in the history of the Arkéa-Samsic team, and our sports department has established a strategy to achieve our objective of reaching the World-Tour.
“Our rendezvous with the Giro d'Italia is therefore not for this year and making such a decision was not easy, but I remain convinced that in the very near future the routes of the Giro d'Italia and the Arkéa-Samsic formation will cross path.s”
RCS Sport recently named the team for their Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, with Arkea-Samsic invited to all the races due to their 2021 ProTeam ranking.
